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'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

bbc.co.uk

121–130 of 270 posts

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#123
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The TV license is a tax imposed by the government The requirement to hold a licence is a statutory one. Likewise, payment of the fee must, by law, be made to the BBC, and enforcement of the licensing regime must be done by (or on behalf of) the BBC. Thus, it is Parliament, not the government, that imposes the tax. (Yes, I know that all taxes must have a statutory basis, but this is one that is levied outside of the…

Wait, hold up, the Parliament is not the government? That's a very confusing take.

What's confusing about it?

The government wields executive power, Parliament legislates and holds the government to account.

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#124
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The TV license is a tax imposed by the government The requirement to hold a licence is a statutory one. Likewise, payment of the fee must, by law, be made to the BBC, and enforcement of the licensing regime must be done by (or on behalf of) the BBC. Thus, it is Parliament, not the government, that imposes the tax. (Yes, I know that all taxes must have a statutory basis, but this is one that is levied outside of the…

Wait, hold up, the Parliament is not the government? That's a very confusing take.

> the Parliament is not the government?

Correct. In the UK, "government" refers to the ministers currently in power, the "executive branch of the government" in US terms.

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#125
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The TV license is a tax imposed by the government The requirement to hold a licence is a statutory one. Likewise, payment of the fee must, by law, be made to the BBC, and enforcement of the licensing regime must be done by (or on behalf of) the BBC. Thus, it is Parliament, not the government, that imposes the tax. (Yes, I know that all taxes must have a statutory basis, but this is one that is levied outside of the…

Parliament is a part of the government, at least under the en_us understanding of the word. Government n. 1. the governing body of a nation, state, or community.

That's a very broad definition. It's definitely not one that is shared in en-GB nor, at least to my knowledge, amongst other English dialects.

Are opposition legislators considered "members of the government", even if they don't actually, well, govern anything?

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#126

The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.

For future reference, the current title on HN is: > 'Floating ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/JcBUY And the current title on BBC is: > 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/AyAK4 Interestingly though, because of the quotation marks I understood “floating” to mean, as intended, that it looked like the ship was in the air and didn’t even think abou…

BBC article at the time of posting was indeed 'Floating ship'

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#128
post #35

I've seen this optical illusion in person, with large container ships, off the US Mid-Atlantic coast, and it's really cool. The photo in this article is fantastic. It shows an extreme example of the illusion. The ship appears to be, not just hovering over the water, but actually suspended in mid-air. In my view, it's worth clicking on the link just to see the photo.

Something just occurred to me. Is this actually an optical illusion? My idea of an optical illusion is one where your brain perceives something that is different from reality. Indeed, when I look it up I see examples of that (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion) But in this case your brain isn't doing anything wrong, the light reaching your eyes is what's "wrong" and your brain is correctly interpreting what your eyes see (as shown by the photograph).

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#129
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parliament is a part of the government, at least under the en_us understanding of the word. Government n. 1. the governing body of a nation, state, or community.

That's a very broad definition. It's definitely not one that is shared in en-GB nor, at least to my knowledge, amongst other English dialects. Are opposition legislators considered "members of the government", even if they don't actually, well, govern anything?

Yes, in the same way that I would consider a government employee who does not have carte blanche to be part of the government, even when not every decision they make is implemented. The government is the entire apparatus that governs a state, under the en_us definition.

If you changed the funding of RT to be controlled by the Duma, but left all other details intact, would you then say that RT is not government sponsored? To me, that seems like an odd distinction to make. It doesn't capture what most people find salient when talking about government sponsorship of the media. To wit: where is the money -- and therefore power -- coming from? Is it primarily controlled by the people or is it controlled by the rulers?

Re: 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

#130
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For future reference, the current title on HN is: > 'Floating ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/JcBUY And the current title on BBC is: > 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/AyAK4 Interestingly though, because of the quotation marks I understood “floating” to mean, as intended, that it looked like the ship was in the air and didn’t even think abou…

BBC article at the time of posting was indeed 'Floating ship'

For reference: https://twitter.com/KeirGiles/status/1367742771017224196
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